Public Epistemic Authority

Normative Institutional Design for EU Law

by Johann Moritz Laux

Book cover: Public Epistemic Authority

Extent: 483 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Law

Series: Grundlagen der Rechtswissenschaft

Series volume number: 42

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(June 2022)

ISBN: 9783161600692

9.09 x 6.06 inches

Price: $125.00

In stock

Inter- and supranational courts derive their legitimacy partly from an institutional comparison: judges’ legal expertise and the quality of judicial procedures justify a court’s claim to authority towards other branches of government and other courts with overlapping jurisdiction. To provide a benchmark for assessing judicial outcomes that is compatible with democratic commitments, Johann Laux suggests a new normative category, Public Epistemic Authority (PEA). It builds on the mechanisms behind theories of collective intelligence and empirical research on judicial decision-making. PEA tracks judges’ collective ability to reliably identify breaches of law. It focuses on cognitive tasks in adjudication. The author applies PEA to the Court of Justice of the European Union and offers suggestions for improving its institutional design.

  • By (author) Johann Moritz Laux